After my death our beloved Church abroad will break three ways ... first the Greeks will leave us as they were never a part of us ... then those who live for this world and its glory will go to Moscow ... what will remain will be those souls faithful to Christ and His Church.~St. Philaret of NY

A
new draft catechism of the Russian Orthodox church has declared
ecumenical discussions to date ‘completely faithful and obedient’ to
Christian teaching, in opposition to critics of ecumenism within the
church.

The Catechesis of the Russian Orthodox Church,
issued with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow,
follows a submission to the Council of Bishops in February, and is
published for Church-wide discussion.

The
sixth and final part of the document, which covers attitudes towards
the non-Orthodox, is non-negotiable, but its assertion that ecumenical
representatives have acted “in complete agreement with the canonical
rules” runs contrary to prominent voices within the church, who have
pointed to the dangers of the ecumenical movement.

Many
figures within the Orthodox Church, including St Justin Popovich, Elder
Ephraim of Katounakia, St Paisios the Athonite, St Seraphim of Sobolev,
Fr Seraphim Rose, and Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos), have been
vocal about the dangers the movement poses.

Following last year’s Council on Crete, the Churches of Georgia and Bulgaria were also guarded in their responses.

The
February 2016 joint declaration between Patriarch Kirill and Pope
Francis contained expressions “which are by no means indisputable, and
sometimes erroneous,” according to Fr George Maximov.

Part VI of the draft catechism quotes a Pan-Orthodox meeting in Thessaloniki in 1998:

During
Orthodox participation of many decades in the ecumenical movement,
Orthodoxy has never been betrayed by any representative of a Local
Orthodox Church. On the contrary, these representatives have always been
completely faithful and obedient to their respective Church
authorities, and acted in complete agreement with the canonical rules,
the Teaching of the Ecumenical Councils, the Church Fathers and the Holy
Tradition of the Orthodox Church (7.3)

The
draft catechism follows an initial submission to the Council of Bishops
in January. The council then forwarded the draft to the permanent
members of the Holy Synod, the primates of the patriarchate’s autonomous
Churches, the first hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of
Russia, the heads of Synodal institutions and theological schools, and
diocesan bishops who expressed a desire to participate in reviewing the
text.

The idea of creating a modern catechism was first raised at the Bishops’ Council in 2008.

Prominent
theologians of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as professors of
various theological academies, have been involved in the project.

Guest reviews are being accepted for Parts I-III, while Parts IV-VI are non-negotiable.

4 August 2017 Prichard's Grocery Store parking lotAlexandria, Tennessee The young man is an employee who helps shoppers carry out their groceries. 20 years ago there was no such thing as a Tennessee Hippie. If rednecks spotted one they would jump him, hold him down, and cut off his hair. This one is wearing boots that jingle-jangle when he walks.

John-Peter Presson

--it
is a recording of the Anaphora responses in Greek as chanted in the old
Patriarchal style -plainchanted as opposed to chanted to the long
melodic forms used from the 19th Century on in various composed
"leitourgica". At first their austerity may be disconcerting to listeners accustomed to tuneful or virtuosic Leitourgika,
but when they are placed in sequence with the celebrant’s recitations,
one is led to a deeper appreciation of the thematic unity and spiritual
power of the great Eucharistic Prayer attributed to St. John Chrysostom.
This simplicity serves to clarify the textual structure of the
responses. They
are simple, elegant responses to the Eucharistic dialogue, similar in
concept to the "Dominus vobiscum" dialogue of the pre-Vatican II high
mass ritual, in contrast to the more contemporary practice of using the
responses as a sort of "musical wallpaper" for the priest's eucharistic
prayers (for the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, for the chant geeks
out there, the lag time for the priest's prayers is not that great, and
as is demonstrated the English sample from our Schola Cantorum, most of
the lag is easily filled).

It
is interesting to note that this WAS the standard of the Patriarchal
chapel for many centuries, and the practice of using more extended was
imported into the Patriarchate after attempts, particularly by
Athenagoras 2 to replace the chant tradition with more contemporary
Sakalleridis melodies and westernized compositions into the Patriarchal
Church.

Aficianados
of the Greek Byzantine Choir of the late Archon Protopsaltis Lycourgos
Angelopoulos will recognize these responses from their Divine Liturgy
CD, now out of print.

On the Execution of a Monstrous Plan – Combining Christ with Belial, by New Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky)

New Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky)

Presented
below is a letter written on July 16/29, 1927 by Holy Martyr Hilarion
(Troitskiy) to N.N. about Metropolitan Sergey's (Stragorodskiy)
Declaration. Although written 90 years ago, this letter remains highly
relevant to our time. Holy Martyr Hilarion was an active supporter of
the revival of the patriarchate. In many ways thanks to his remarkable
speech at the Local Council of 1917-1918, for the first time in more
than 200 years, a Patriarch of Moscow was elected. After the election of
Patriarch Tikhon, Bishop Hilarion became his secretary and advisor,
negotiating on behalf of the Church with state representatives to soften
government policy on religion. The Bishop's active efforts provoked the
discontent of the authorities and in the 1920s he was convicted and
sentenced to three years in the prison camps followed by another three
years of internal exile. The Holy Martyr concluded his earthly path in
Leningrad: at a transfer station from one prison camp to another he
contracted typhus, soon after died, and was buried at the Novodevichy
Cemetery in St. Petersburg in 1929.

My dear friend!

While
I was still under the impression that your anxious letter of October 2
(15) had on me, I looked in my notebook to remind myself of some of my
relatively dated notes associated with the subject of your anxiety. This
is what I drafted on February 18 (March 3), 1924.

"Perhaps
we will soon find ourselves a small island in an ocean of wickedness.
As the fall of the autocracy initially crept up gradually and then
quickly concluded, leaving the image of Russian statehood changed, so
too is the revolutionary reform process in our Church unfolding in a
similar fashion and can also quickly come to a conclusion. The state of
church relations can evolve as if in a kaleidoscope. The Renovationists
could suddenly emerge as the ruling "church party" in Russia, and such a
party would have very few opponents if the overt Renovationists and the
covert traitors come to terms with each other and together cloak
themselves in the guise of canonicity. Of course, one can also assume
that developments could go in another direction, but in any case, the
true children of the Ecumenical Church of Christ must remain vigilant
and stand guard with burning lights.”

"For
an Orthodox person the difficulty of our current time consists, among
other things, if not primarily, (as I wrote in my notebook on January 1
(14), 1925) in that the present life of the Church requires a highly
spiritual attitude towards oneself. One cannot rely on official pastors
(bishops and priests), nor can one formally apply the canons to solve
the issues presented in church life, nor in general can one limit
themselves to a legalistic approach to the matter, but instead it is
necessary to have a spiritual feeling that will show Christ's path among
the many available paths that have been trampled by wild animals in
sheep's clothing. Life has posited questions that can only be resolved
correctly, ecclesiastically correctly, by stepping beyond custom, form,
rule, and being guided by senses trained in discerning good and evil
(Hebrews 5:14). Otherwise, it is easy to defile the sanctity of one's
soul and begin burning one's conscience (1 Timothy 4:2) through
accommodation, according to the rules, with the falsehoods and filth
that the bishops themselves have brought into the Church's enclosure. On
a "legal" basis, one can even accept the Antichrist…"

Have
not church events of recent weeks confirmed these forebodings? Has not
the frightening outcome, which was foreseen in our soul two-three years
ago, come closer to reality with the second accession of Metropolitan
Sergey to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church? Did not the
epistle of Metropolitan Sergey and his Synod, which provoked diverse and
well-deserved negative criticisms, cast the church organization headed
by him into the abominable, adulterous embrace of an atheistic,
blasphemous and Christ-battling (antichrist) government (the variety of
epithets directed by me at the Soviet authorities, are not meant as
invective but in an essential, strictly defined sense - comment added by
Archbishop Hilarion) and did not this terrible wickedness enter the
bowels of our Church? Note that this epistle did not come from the
schismatic Renovationists, nor the Borisovites and their like renegades,
nor from the Living Church heretics, but from the legitimate,
canonical, and presumably Orthodox hierarchy. The main provisions of the
epistle are based on texts (although sometimes with distortions, for
example see the false interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:1-2) of the Holy
Scriptures and with the experience of the ancient Church that is
presented as homogenous with current experience. On the other hand, the
epistle seeks and hopes to meet the urgent needs of tormented believers,
exhausted by persecution, with promises of peace and quiet. And many,
many, especially among the clergy, respond sympathetically to this
appeal by Metropolitan Sergey and his Synod.

This
symphony of godless power and the legal hierarchy of the Orthodox
Church has resulted in some "positive" fruits: bishops (although not
those of the highest quality and not the very "guilty") have been
returned from internal exile (although not very distant exile) and have
been appointed to dioceses (although not those from which they were
driven), and the acting Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergey,
has a Synod (although it more resembles a Chief Procurator's Office of
lawful hierarchs [although most of them are "damaged," i.e. in the
church context they are compromised by their long-standing and firm
orientation toward the godless GPU, among other issues]); Metropolitan
Sergey's name is presented by all as the real helmsman of the Russian
Church, but, alas!; this name is a counterfeit coin, because in reality
the decision maker of the fate of the Russian Church and Her bishops,
both those persecuted and those protected, i.e. those to whom mercy has
been shown and who have been placed in diocesan sees (the latter is
especially sad!), is the current Chief Procurator of the "Russian
Orthodox Church" Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Tuchkov (Metropolitan Sergey
would not dare to deny all this as he was the unfortunate initiator, or
rather, the instrument of the monstrous plan to combine Christ with
Belial – comment added by Archbishop Hilarion). To anyone who has eyes
to see and ears to hear, it is clear that, contrary to the decree on the
separation of the Church from the state, the Orthodox Church has
entered into a close, active alliance with the state. And with what a
state?! With a state not lead by an Orthodox Tsar (in their day many
members of the Church vigorously objected to the connection of the
Church with such a state -- comment added by Archbishop Hilarion), but
with a state whose main task is to destroy all religion on earth and,
above all, Orthodox Christianity, as it sees in Orthodoxy, and rightly
so, the primary world base of religious faith and a first-class fortress
in Her battle with materialism, atheism, theomachism and Satanism
(which is practiced, according to popular rumor, by some of the
authorities of this world).

"…And
he carried me (one of the seven angels) away in the Spirit into a
wilderness," said John the Apostle, "and I saw a woman sitting on a
scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names…And on her forehead was
written a name of mystery: 'Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes
and of earth's abominations.' And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood
of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I
marveled greatly" (Revelation 17:3,5,6).

And
how could the Seer (John the Apostle) not marvel when he saw before him
the transfiguration of the "woman clothed with the sun, with the moon
under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Revelation
12:1), into "the great harlot" (Revelation 18:2), into "the mother of
prostitutes and of earth's abominations…drunk with the blood of the
saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." (Revelation 17:5-6)! My
friend! Do we not see something quite similar with our own eyes? Do not
events occur before us that involuntarily bring to mind the spiritual
contemplation of the Seer of the New Testament? Compare the above words
from the Book of Revelation with the deeds and actions of our Living
Church members and Renovationists! Are they not applicable to them,
almost to the smallest detail!?

Much
more significant, in the above noted apocalyptic sense, are the events
of the last days associated with the name of Metropolitan Sergey. More
significant, if only for the fact, that the scarlet beast with the name
of blasphemy on its heads is not being ridden by a self-declared
schismatic, but by a faithful wife, possessing an image of genuine piety
apparently not desecrated by prior apostasy. This is the main, terrible
aspect of what is happening right now before our very eyes, which
effects the deepest spiritual interests of the children of the Church of
God. It is immeasurable in its consequences, which cannot be even
approximated, but which is essentially of global importance, the same
importance that has belonged from its inception to the Church of Christ,
the one true (orthodox) Church, which the forces of hell are attacking
with unprecedented force, and with which we are organically connected
not only in this age, but also in future ages, if indeed we love future
ages. What are we to do in these terrible moments of a new danger
instigated by the enemy against our Mother, the Holy Orthodox Church?
What are we to do so as not to fall out of Her blessed, saving bosom and
to not join the wickedness of the blasphemous beast and the harlot
sitting on it? Lord, show us the path we should follow!

"After
this I saw," continued John the Apostle, "another angel coming down
from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with
his glory. He cried out mightily with a loud voice, saying: ‘Fallen!
Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a dwelling place of demons, a
haunt for every unclean spirit, and a haunt for every unclean and
hateful bird." (Revelation 18:1-2) "And I heard another voice from
heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no
participation in her sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues"
(Revelation 18:4).

Do
not think, my dear, that I propose these apocalyptic eschatological
insights as an immutable, dogmatic interpretation of these citations
from the Book of Revelation. This would be an inexcusable pretension,
absurd impudence, on my part. I am just drawing a dotted line between
the images of the Apocalypse and contemporary church events, which
compel one's thoughts to these prophetic images and which for their
part, throw a bright ray of light on these events. "One repeatedly sees
in the Old Testament that the same prophecies first come to pass in
small form but then have another, higher and final fulfillment" (for the
sake of this letter's length, I won't cite examples). This fact is
sufficient to justify the juxtapositions that I have made and which I
offer for your Christian consideration and submit to your friendly
court. I fervently ask for your prayers for me to be enlightened by the
grace of the Spirit of Truth, without which our human consideration of
spiritual things often proves to be only "the irritation of a mind
imprisoned." Neither the broadest scholarship, nor the most profound
innate intelligence, nor the most refined natural mysticism, can give a
satisfactory understanding of the mysteries of God. And in this instance
we are abutting a mystery, the great and, in a certain sense, final
mystery of the earthly existence of the Church and humanity.

The
question that naturally arises in reading the last verse that I quoted
from the Book of Revelation, in which the faithful are urged to leave
Babylon, is also a mystery, i.e. when must the people of God make their
way out. One extremely scholarly, thoughtful, pious and humble
interpreter of the Book of Revelation answers this question thus: "when
Babylon is at the threshold of judgment"..."This was the experience of
the ancient church, which departed from the ruins of Israel and
Jerusalem, and for whom the signal of its liberation was the judgment
over the Old Testament peoples.”

The
Church then had sufficiently clear and even externally defined
directions for its Exodus (Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14, and especially
Luke 21:20). Is it possible to say this about the signs of the Lord's
prescribed exodus in that final epoch, to which in the final analysis,
the words of the Seer apply and which is presumably a prediction for the
present time? The "threshold of judgment" is neither a chronological
nor an outwardly visible sign. To recognize this threshold, people must
have open spiritual eyes. To the Pharisees who asked the Lord: "When
will the Kingdom of God arrive?" the answer given was, "…the kingdom of
God is not coming with things that can be observed," i.e. the Kingdom of
God does not come in an observable way for sensuous eyes, "nor will
they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the
kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21) "This means," according
to Bishop Ignatiy Brianchaninov, "one must abandon a carnal and sinful
life, and then through repenting and living according to the
commandments of the Gospel, cleanse and adorn one's spiritual temple,
after which the Holy Spirit will bless it and perform its final
purification and decoration." To such a temple God descends and
establishes His spiritual, invisible, but altogether quite palpable and
perceptible Kingdom. Whoever accepts within himself the Kingdom of God,
can recognize and avoid the Antichrist or withstand him. Whoever does
not accept the Kingdom of God within himself, will not recognize the
Antichrist and, in an incomprehensible manner to oneself, will surely
become his follower; they will not recognize the approaching end of the
world and the terrible second coming of Christ; it will find them
unprepared. No human teaching in word and words is sufficient
instruction for what requires instruction in the soul's inner chamber,
that is instruction from God Himself. Having attained within oneself the
Kingdom of God, one has the Holy Spirit as a guide, Who teaches all
truth to the guided person and does not allow him to be deceived by
lies, clothed to deceive most conveniently in the illusions of truth.

A
blessed monk very correctly said, in talking about the Antichrist,
"many will believe in the Antichrist and will praise him as a mighty
God. Those who always have God in themselves, whose hearts are
enlightened through pure faith, will see the truth (about the
Antichrist) and will recognize him. For all those who have a vision of
God and wisdom, the advent of the tyrant will be understandable. But for
those whose minds are perpetually focused on the things of this life
and who love things of the earth, it will be incomprehensible, because
they are too attached to the things of this life. Even if they hear the
word, they will not believe and will be indignant at the one who speaks
to them." They will consider him a madman, worthy of only contempt and
regret. Mankind, tarnished by its carnal wisdom, will not believe in the
Second Coming of the Lord at all. "…in the last days scoffers will
come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say,
“Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died,
everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." (2 Peter
3:3-4) (Bishop Ignatiy Brianchaninov, Homily on the Kingdom of God,
Monday of the 26th week, Collected Works, 3rd edition, volume 4, pp.
266-268).

That
the now ruling "dark power" thinks, reasons, and acts in the style of
these scoffers, is beyond doubt and should come as no surprise. And will
contemporary church leaders, who "possess an image of piety and
rejection of its strength," and who have combined with the "scoffers" of
this age, will they not consider "the madness that deserves only
contempt," the thoughts that my soul presents to meet yours? Recently,
one bishop, defending the orientation of Metropolitan Sergey,
intimidated his interlocutor, who was indignantly rejecting this
orientation, by arguing that those who disagree with Metropolitan Sergey
will remain in such a minority that they will be one of the many small
sects that exist in our country.

The
poor Bishop forced to resort to such an impotent argument to defend the
nascent "Soviet Orthodox Church!" He would do well to remember the
words of the Savior about whether the Son of Man shall find faith on
earth (Luke 18:8)! He would do well to remember the many apostolic
predictions about the impoverishment of faith and the multiplication of
all wickedness in the end times! He would do well to remember what the
Seer said about the Church in Sardis, in which only "a few people" "did
not defile their garments," and the glorious Church in Philadelphia,
"not having much power," but retaining the word of the Lord and not
denying Christ's name (Revelation 3:4,8)! A "plurality" and a "majority"
are necessary in parliaments and political parties, but not in the
Church of God, which is the pillar and affirmation of Truth, independent
of such categories and even in opposition to them as the Church is a
witness unto itself.

"The
Gospel will be known to everyone," says Bishop Theophan (Govorov) about
the times preceding the appearance of the Antichrist (interpreting 2
Thessalonians - comment added by Archbishop Hilarion), "but one part
will not believe the Gospel, another greater part will be heretical,
will not follow God's teachings, but will build a faith of its own
invention although based on the words of Scripture. Of these invented
faiths there will be many...There are already many of them but there
will be even more. Every kingdom will have its own faith confession,
then every district with its own confession, then every city, and in the
end, perhaps, every head will keep its own confession. Wherever people
create their own faith, and do not accept God's teachings, there can be
no other way. And all of these confessions will appropriate to
themselves the name of Christians." This is on the one hand.

On
the other hand, according to Bishop Theophan, "there will be a part
that maintain the true faith as it was imparted by the Holy Apostles. Of
these, a not insignificant part will only be faithful in name, but in
their hearts will not have the attitude that is required by faith, as
they too love the present. Although the Christian name will be heard
everywhere, and everywhere churches and church rites will be seen, all
of this is a facade as inside it is outright apostasy. The Antichrist
will spring from this ground and will grow in the same spirit of outward
appearance. Later, having given himself to Satan, he will explicitly
leave the faith and...those not maintaining the truth of Christianity,
he will carry away to a clear retreat from Christ the Lord.”

It
is worth pondering this, my dear! I consider it appropriate to inform
you of the following. Some two-three weeks ago, I read a letter that
contained the original (in quotation marks) words of a certain
well-known "blessed" one that were said by her in response to a question
about Metropolitan Sergey in which the questioner, apparently,
indicated that Metropolitan Sergey did not transgress against Orthodox
dogma, and was thus not a heretic. "Well, what do you mean not a
heretic!" the blessed one said, "he is worse than a heretic, he has
bowed to the Antichrist, and if he does not repent, he will have a place
in hell." All of this taken together and much more, both visible and
audible, forces all living believing souls to be very alert and to
carefully look at the picture unfolding before them of the wife seated
on the beast.

These
souls feel a new, unprecedented danger to the Church of Christ and, of
course, are sounding the alarm. They, for the most part, are not
hurrying toward a final break with the church "adulterers," in the hope
that their consciences are not burnt to ashes, and that therefore
repentance and correction, i.e. repudiation of the dark deeds that they
have started, is possible. Will this hope come to pass?! From my soul I
say, please Lord! But in the very depths of my soul, I find doubts and I
am not yet ready to dot the i. Maybe time will dot it, or more
precisely the Lord of time! He will save us both from frivolous haste
and from the indecent, indifferent slowness in this terribly critical
situation in which the Providence of God has placed us! So here, my
friend, is my lengthy response to your short, but written from your
heart, letter.

May the Lord keep and make us wise in these grim and terrible moments of our spiritual life!

A story about St. John S&SF that, as far as I know, never made it into print. This story was circulated on the west coast USA back when St. John was still alive, and was heard by Reader Daniel Everiss who remembers it to this day:

It happened that Abp. John came into a situation where a priest had lied about something, and the lie was verified. For a number of days afterwards he went about muttering repeatedly, "a priest who lies... a priest who lies..."

I understand St. John's disbelief. It seems utterly impossible that a priest could be capable of telling lies to people. A priest serves at God's altar, faces Him in such an intimate way, trusts Him and depends on Him to accomplish the miracle of the Eucharist which he then dispenses to God's people. How could he also dispense an untruth, a lie?

It seems impossible.

"Lies destroy love.

•

Love prevents lies."

It seems just as impossible that any Orthodox person, whether clergy or layman, could lie to a brother. I can imagine a scenario where I would lie, like if the KGB were looking for my brother and asked me where to find him, I would certainly lie and send them looking in the opposite direction. There would be no love lost in that situation.

But within the Body of Christ lies destroy love. And if we have love, it prevents us from lying to a brother, if we have love for God (Truth) and love for neighbor (made in God's image). Where there is Love, lies are not possible, -- we don't give untruths to people we love. It is not possible to mix the two. I understand St. John's mutterings –– something impossible had occurred, something too hard to believe.

Maybe the priest who lied had been a KGB agent. KGB agents don't have any problem lying –– their whole life is a lie.

But if he were not a KGB agent? What would cause an Orthodox person to lie to a brother? It would have to be some terrible passion, like a drug addiction. Addicts are forced to lie and steal because of their addiction. And actually it was an addict who I quoted above, "Lies destroy love – Love prevents lies." My daughter observed this, and made note of it, during the time she was enslaved by a heroin addiction.

Lies can be sneaky, because if we are lying to ourselves, then we will end up inadvertently lying to others. We can find ourselves exaggerating or embellishing, which is also lying and not innocent or acceptable for Orthodox Christians. These lies are sad. But utterly horrifying is the the lie that is a made up story, intending to manipulate another person, purposely causing them to believe something that is not true to get them to behave (or not behave) in a certain way. It seems impossible that an Orthodox person would tell such a lie to another Orthodox person, knowing Christ's prayer and God's will for our unity, oneness. I understand why St. John was shocked and needed time for it to sink in, turning it over in his mind for days, "...a priest who lies..."

Here is a link to a nice video of the beginning the Liturgy on Transfiguration at the Slatioara Monastery in Romania, in which several hierarchs from the ROCA, who were headed by Met. Agafangel, took part:

My name is John Granger, "the Dean of Harry Potter scholars," and I
write you today because I am just finishing up the scripts and about to
begin shooting four video classes about the artistry and meaning of the
world's best-selling books. These classes
will be available to Hogwarts Saga readers world wide in a free 'Potter
Pundit Summer School' online later this month.

The dream of making first-tier Potter scholarshipaccessible, interactive and affordable to
everyone has been a project I've been working on since my first book
was published in 2002. I'm excited about making a break-through in
bringing
the best in fandom and academic thinking to J.K. Rowling's global
audience of readers.

Before the digital cameras roll and we lay out the live webinar subjects, though, I want to be sure we're talking about exactly what you want to know more about.

Can you help me make sure these four classes cover at least some of the material you're most interested in?

I have put together a multiple
choice question survey that takes less than five minutes to fill
out. I am grateful enough for your participation that I will be giving
away a $100 Amazon gift card in a random drawing to one of the people
who completes it (be sure to get to the end to
sign up for that drawing!).

Thank you in advance for helping us out! I'll write next week about how to sign up for the free 'Potter Pundits Summer School.'

AD

AD

AD

THE SISTER CHURCHES

The True Orthodox Churches of Romania, and Bulgaria, and with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and with the Synod in Resistance, are called by the Grace of the Lord to coexist in Mysteriological communion.

from §4 of “Schedule of Steps in the Union Process” Feb. 2014

VL AGAFANGEL PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Theotokos and all the Saints: keep our souls unharmed from the destructive influences of globalism, ecumenism, and sergianism, and give all of us the strength to endure the latest onset of persecution of the Church of Christ. Amen

QUOTE

"I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.”

St. John Chrysostom

QUOTE

"If we have a good priest (or bishop), we give thanks to God. If a bad one, we endure him".

- old Russian saying

QUOTE

"And here is something to which I would like to draw your attention to – something about which very many do not think about. Father Archimandrite Constantine, whom probably many of you know, the reposed editor of the journal “Orthodox Rus’”, a profound Christian mind, considered that the most terrible among all the achievements of the communists was that the communists created their own false-church, a soviet church which they shoved onto the unfortunate people in place of the genuine Church which went underground into the catacombs. Do not think that I am exaggerating or that Father Constantine was exaggerating!

Once, in the year 1918, a Pan-Russian Church Council was held. At this Council, the entire Pan-Russian Church together with its first holy hierarch, Patriarch Tikhon anathematized, excommunicated from the Church not only the theomachists and godless ones themselves, but also all those who would collaborate with them."

~St. Philaret of NY

QUOTE

"To the Russians abroad, it has been granted to shine in the whole world with the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father Who is in heaven, and thus obtain salvation for themselves. But if it does not perform this purpose and even abases Orthodoxy by its life, the Diaspora will have before itself two paths: either to be converted to the path of repentance, having acquired forgiveness through prayer to God and being reborn spiritually and to being capable of giving rebirth to our suffering homeland; or else being rejected by God and remaining in banishment, persecuted by everyone, until gradually it will degenerate and disappear from the face of the earth."

from Vladika John's report to the All-Diaspora Sobor in 1938

QUOTE

The apostasy of our times, to a degree unique in Christian history, is proceeding not primarily by false teachings or canonical deviations, but rather by a false understanding of Orthodoxy on the part of those who may even be perfectly Orthodox in their dogmatic teaching and canonical situation. A correct "Orthodoxy" deprived of the Spirit of true Christianity—this is the meaning of Sergianism, and it cannot be fought by calling it a "heresy," which it is not, nor by detailing its canonical irregularities, which are only incidental to something much more important.

- Russia's Catacomb Saints

QUOTE

Let it not be thought, however, that I affirm that it is necessary to prize every peace. For I know that there is a splendid disagreement and the most destructive unanimity. Yet one must love a good peace which has a good purpose: unity with God.

-St. Gregory the Theologian

QUOTE

... To pious Christians the fact that the world has fallen into godlessness is to them obvious, and they are ready to see it as an unfortunate historical inevitability ...

Professor Viktor Trostinkov

QUOTE

If you want to have assurance that you are saved, repent now that you are young and healthy and it is manifest that you left sin while you were still able to sin. But if you persevere in sin into your old age, why then you did not leave sin, but rather sin left you.

St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

QUOTE

Live in peace not only with your friends, but also with your enemies; but only your personal enemies, and not the enemies of God.

St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves

QUOTE

Judge not according to appearances, but judge righteous judgment.

St. John 7:24

QUOTE

"If Russia is not ressurrected, a new Golgotha threatens the whole world."

Priest Vladimir Evsukoff 1980†

QUOTE

A man who does not express a desire to link himself to the latest of the saints (in time) in all love and humility owing to a certain distrust in himself, will never be linked to the preceding saints and will not be admitted to their succession, even though he thinks he possesses all possible faith and love for God and for all His saints. He will be cast out of their midst, as one who refused to take humbly the place allotted to him by God before all time, and to link himself to that latest saint (in time) as God had disposed.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

QUOTE

SCOBA, to which world orthodoxy gives such great significance, reproaching us for not belonging to it, actually is in no way a canonical organ. The Russian Church Outside of Russia was invited to take part in these conferences; however, our Church refused to send representatives there after clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate were invited. "We never and nowhere will sit at one table with them; by this our spiritual communion with the Universal Church is not broken."

Archpriest George Grabbe 1969

QUOTE

"Let us always thank the Lord that we are in the Holy Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which throughout the 80 years of its existence has trodden the straight, royal path of God, without ever turning aside and losing its way."

QUOTE

The passions lying hidden in the soul provide the demons with the means of arousing impassioned thoughts in us. Then, fighting the intellect through these thoughts, they force it to give its assent to sin. When it has been overcome, they lead it to sin in the mind; and when this has been done they induce it, captive as it is, to commit the sin in action. Having thus desolated the soul by means of these thoughts, the demons then retreat, taking the thoughts with them, and only the spectre or idol of sin remains in the intellect. Referring to this our Lord says, 'When you see the abominable idol of desolation standing in the holy place (let him who reads understand)... (Matt 24:15). For man's intellect is a holy place and a temple of God in which the demons, having desolated the soul by impassioned thoughts, set up the idol of sin. That these things have already taken place in history no one, I think, who has read Josephus will doubt; though some say that they will also come to pass in the time of the Antichrist.

Philokalia

QUOTE

There are three things that impel us towards what is holy: natural instincts, angelic powers, and probity of intention. Natural instincts impel us, when, for example, we do to others what we would wish them to do to us (cf. Luke 6:31), or when we see someone suffering deprivation or in need and naturally feel compassion. Angelic powers impel us when, being ourselves impelled to something worthwhile, we find we are providentially helped and guided. We are impelled by probity of intention when, discriminating between good and evil, we choose the good.

Philokalia

QUOTE

The outward Gospel of social idealism is a symptom of loss of faith.

Fr. Seraphim Rose

QUOTE

Impurity of intellect consists first in having false knowledge, ...

Philokalia

QUOTE

Isn't Marx really the third of a trio with Darwin and Freud as a practical source in the war against revealed truth?

Fr. Seraphim Rose

Letters, 1972

QUOTE

QUOTE

To: ROCA members from the MP

"You have to understand that you have long been in a false church, which implants in its members' souls, a false spirituality, which in turn takes root and grows stronger and stronger, the longer a man stays in it."

Bishop Athanasius, 2014

QUOTE

Mankind has gone mad, and we see with horror the abyss into which it is being drawn. Let us lay aside every worldly care, and let us fall down in prayer and readiness for the dread Judgment of the Lord. Death will not come with bombs and poisons. Death has already come and take up residence with us and in us, and has made corpses of us, Mammon has overwhelmed this sinful world, which is dominated by Queen Science, Lucifer himself, which with one hand makes medicines and machines for man's foolish happiness and with the other terrorizes him by means of the bomb! Such is the sorry state of knowledge and the agony of the world through and through. Let us lift up our hearts.

-Photios Kontoglou (†1965) letter to Dr. Cavarnos dated 5/10/57

QUOTE

"Psychopaths are a superior subspecies. We transcend humanity. We are Nature's Supermen. We deserve the subservience and availability of everyone around us. Luckily, every year 100-million people are born throughout the world. We have 100-million new choices every year."

-Sam Vaknin, self-realized psychopath

QUOTE

Our Saviour placed the Church in the world in order to save the world, and Satan is always trying to place the world into the Church in order to destroy the Church.

attributed to Desert Fathers

QUOTE

"If you see lying and hypocrisy, expose them in front of all, even if they are clothed inpurple and fine linen."

Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) of New York (1906)

HALL OF SHAME

DISCLAIMER

This is a privately owned blog. It is not and has never been an official organ of any ecclesiastical organization.

"No one man, or group of men, can himself speak for the Church of Christ. It is nonetheless possible to speak from within the Church, in conformity with Orthodox tradition; and it is this that we shall attempt to do."